Matthew Spence’s Edinburgh Film Reviews

Directed by : Andrew Stanton

WALL-E is a waste allocation load lifter earth class robot that is the only machine left on earth to clean up after the long lost humans. After years of compacting trash he finally sees another machine named Eve that comes down from space in search of life. After falling in love with Eve, he follows it back into space and into another whole adventure.

I Loved this film for it’s entertainment ability and its in depth story. This movie made me laugh and sad in parts, which is what I was expecting when I went into the movie. Also, this movie was great for it’s story of how mankind ran itself off the planet earth because of our waste production. Humans became extremely fat and lost bone mass because they never did anything . My favorite line in the entire movie was when the captain says “I am tired of doing nothing, that’s what I have been doing my whole life.”. That line is a complete opposite of what I am used to hearing. I would have to recommend this film for everyone.

Trees: 4/5

Transsiberian that is directed by Brad Anderson is a film about two Americans( ) who travel to Russia after helping their church group in China. While they are on the train to Russia the wife gets into trouble with a fellow cabin-mate and ends up alone with him. Things only get worse for the couple as the police begin to get involved.

I didn’t feel affected either way with this film. This film was a classical Hollywood film which wrapped everything up at the end. The reason I do not swing one way or the other with this film is I have seen several films exactly like this one. it was not boring but it wasn’t exciting either.

Trees: 2.5/5

Helen directed by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor is about Helen (Annie Townsend). Helen is quiet girl who joins in on a police reconstruction and plays the role of Joy, the girl gone missing, because of her similar looks. She is asked to dress like Joy and is told to do and to be as much like Joy as possible. As Helen becomes more comfortable with Joy’s life,she becomes more and more like her, even to the point of having dinner with Joy’s family.

The film Helen did not peak my interests at all. This was a very boring film and I felt it dragged on in to many scenes taking to much time showing detail when the scene did not require it. I must give some credit to Helen however and say that it did not make me fall asleep but rather keep me wondering if anything was ever going to happened.

Trees: 1.5/5

Bigga than Ben directed by S A Halewood is about two Russians come over to London to try to con and steal their way to success. The two Russians struggle in their new life of crime but eventually get a hold of their situation and begin to con the London banks. However as time passes they are caught and lose all of their money. Once they turn themselves around things begin to shape up.

At first I thought I wouldn’t like this film because I assumed they would become rich by scamming and stealing from society. But as the film progressed it revealed how much of a struggle it was for them. As they turned to a life of honest hard work their lives began to work for them.

Trees: 3/5

Directed by: Alex Rivera

Sleep Dealers concentrates on a young man named, Memo Cruz, who flees his home after the U.S military mistakes his father for a terrorist. He flees to the city of Tijuana where he begins his work in a sleep factory after getting high tech nodes implanted into his body from his friend. These nodes allow you to control machines or to let them control you.

I liked this film because it had great concepts and life-like realities that could happen in the near future. I have always been a tech fan so this movie naturally intrigued me. However I was slightly disappointed when I found out that it’s aim was more towards political than the expansion of the technology aspect. I liked this movie overall and the only things I had a problem with is the robots the workers controlled and the wires that were needed to connect machines to humans. With technology now and in the future we could easily make a robot to make the building with a program and it would not need a human to control it. Also, we have wireless connections now so we would not need wires to connect machines to human minds. Overall I would recommend this film.

Trees: 3/5

Portrait of Jason directed by Shirley Clarke is an interview of the man Jason Holliday. The film is recorded over an entire night without much editing. Jason becomes more comfortable as he drinks and smokes throughout the night. Jason tries his best to put on a act for the camera at least until the very end of the film when he begins to show his true self.

I must say that Portrait of Jason did only one thing for me, it made me laugh occasionally. I was not expecting this film to be a straight up interview shot in one night. I felt this interview drug on as he talked about himself and also jumped around quite a bit. This is to be expected when they have a film about an interview of someone, however it is not something I am interested in. I would not recommend this film.

Trees: 1.5/5

The Fall that is directed by Tarsem Singh is based in a hospital ward and focuses on the main character, Alexandria (Catinca Untaru). Roy (Lee Pace) a stunt man in the film, soon unites with Alex after receiving a letter that has fallen through his window. Alex finds her letter In the hands of Roy. Depressed about his girlfriend leaving him he starts to tell Alex a story in hopes of convincing her to do something for him.

This is so far the best film I have seen. The acting was superb especially coming from Untaru, the 5 year old girl. She made it look as though she really believed the story. She added so many other random phrases and questions in the film that it would seem impossible to come up with it in a script; making it seem that Roy had to improvise to guide her back into the script. This film was also an emotional controller meaning it could make you cry one moment and laugh the next. The sound effects and the colors in the story being told as well as how it was told was amazing. The army sounding like wild animals and the colors in the story were brilliant compared to the “real-life” part of the film. I would have to recommend this film for everyone.

Trees: 4.5/5

Directed by: Gillian Armstrong

This film is about the great Houdini (Guy Pearce), however it does not concentrate on his work but rather his character and relation with the main character, Mary (Catherine Zeta-Jones). The film seems to follow the child, Benji’s (Saoirse Ronan)point of view. Houdini becomes obsessed with finding a psychic who can tell him his mother’s dying words; which is what brings these characters together.

I did not feel moved in either direction for this film. It was a great film, but it didn’t do anything for me personally. It had great acting and a great storyline however, I did not connect with it at all.

Trees: 3/5

Directed by: Tomas Alfredsson

This is more of a drama film until the immersion of the vampire. Let the Right One In centers around Oskar, a young schoolboy. Oskar constantly harassed by the school bullies, begins to develop a friendship with Eli when they meet in the apartment courtyard. This film adds a twist of horror, when revealing the existence of a vampire that begins to kill the townspeople.

Let the Right One In was a great film in my opinion. My reasons for enjoying this film were how well they kept the aspects of a vampire in place. They kept the weakness of sunlight, the age staying a constant, and the weakened state when they haven’t eaten. I even learned a new fact about vampires, they cannot enter your home unless they are invited in. I always love to learn new facts, especially about the things I love.

Trees: 3.5/5

In Enlightened Blood directed by Ivan Avila Duenas, six unrelated people undergo a serious physical change. As the film changes focus to the different ones, they all have the same locket around their neck. An entity of some sort enters their bodies and then leaves them wondering where they are and what happened.

I found this film to be quite confusing for the first hour. It lacked an explanation or a focus at the beginning as to what was really going on. I only started understanding the movie after the last character showed up, so I cannot do this film justice. In my opinion, the film would have been better if it had explained beforehand a small amount of what was going on, instead of jumping from character to character.

Trees: 2.5/5